The Future of Conservatism

With these kind of hot new anti-tax raps, I think right-wing economics will be back in vogue any day now:

Obviously, having more money is nice and paying taxes is a bummer. Still, the fact remains that average living standards seem to be higher in high-tax, high-service jurisdictions. I think the key thing to worry about is not that the tax burden may be too high in some places, but that the actual quality of government may be too low. An excellent public school that can take a child from a disadvantaged background and help her go to college is worth paying a lot of money for; so are safe streets, decent infrastructure, reliable health care, etc. In places where they’re getting that—Finland or Denmark, say—high tax burdens are well worth the price. But, clearly, there are many instances of public services being provided in an ineffective way, and then people may not be getting their money’s worth.